244 'VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION.' [1867. 



not to have known how great the distinction was, for in June 

 1868 he wrote to Sir J. D. Hooker : — 



"What a man you are for sympathy. I was made 

 " Eques " some months ago, but did not think much about it. 

 Now, by Jove, we all do ; but you, in fact, have knighted 

 me." 



The letters may now take up the story.] 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, February 8 [1867]. 

 My dear Hooker, — I am heartily glad that you have 

 been offered the Presidentship of the British Association, for 

 it is a great honour, and as you have so much work to do, I 

 am equally glad that you have declined it. I feel, however, 

 convinced that you would have succeeded very well ; but if 

 I fancy myself in such a position, it actually makes my blood 

 run cold. I look back with amazement at the skill and taste 

 with which the Duke of Argyll made a multitude of little 

 speeches at Glasgow. By the way, I have not seen the 

 Duke's book,* but I formerly thought that some of the arti- 

 cles which appeared in periodicals were very clever, but not 

 very profound. One of these was reviewed in the Saturday 

 Review f some years ago, and the fallacy of some main argu- 

 ment was admirably exposed, and I sent the article to you, 

 and you agreed strongly with it. . . . There was the other 

 day a rather good review of the Duke's book in the Spectator, 

 and with a new explanation, either by the Duke or the re- 

 viewer (I could not make out which), of rudimentary organs, 

 namely, that economy of labour and material was a great 



thirty members a chancellor is elected by the king (the first officer of this 

 kind was Alexander v. Humboldt) ; and it is the duty of the chancellor to 

 notify a vacancy in the Order to the remainder of the thirty, who then 

 elect by vote the new member — but the king has technically the appoint- 

 ment in his own hands. 



* • The Reign of Law,' 1867. 



f Sat. Reviezv, Nov. 15, 1862, ' The Edinburgh Review on the Su- 

 pernatural.' Written by my cousin, Mr. Henry Parker. 



